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Message your clients with Two Way Texting

Two-way texting is a Platinum feature.

Enable two-way texting on your vcita account to send text messages to your clients and receive text replies! With a dedicated SMS number for your business, clients can have a natural conversation with your business via mobile.

Activate Two Way Texting

To start texting clients, you will first need to activate the setting in your account.

  1. Navigate to Settings > Auto Client Messages and SMS.
  2. Switch to the SMS Settings tab.
  3. Enable the two-way texting radio button and click on Get two-way texting.
  4. Your account will immediately be assigned a phone number. This is the dedicated SMS number that your messages will be sent to and from.
Important: Marketing campaign messages are sent from a non-dedicated phone number - not your dedicated SMS number. You may not receive replies to a marketing campaign. Please discourage clients from responding to marketing SMS.   
Important: If you have set up a sender name (not available in US, Canada, France), it will not apply to messages sent from your account phone number. Encourage clients to save your phone number as a contact with your business name. 

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  1. Click Save at the top of the page to save your changes.

Texting your clients

Once activated, you can freely send text messages to clients via any method that you would normally use to communicate. 

One of the easiest ways to initiate a new text message to a client is from your Quick Actions menu. 

  1. Initiate a new message from Quick actions > New message.
  2. Select Text message as your channel (you will only be able to select this option if the client has a phone number).

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  1. Type in your message and send it.

You may also message clients right from the client card. Just click on the icon next to the input box to choose between sending your message via text or email.

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You can easily tell which messages were sent or received via SMS thanks to the handy SMS indicator under the message in the conversation.

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Your client will receive the text message from your dedicated SMS number.

Note: Sending a text message will deduct from your SMS balance. 160 English characters (or 70 non-English characters) is the length of one text message. If you send a message larger than the limit, you will be charged for the corresponding number of text messages. 

Receiving text messages from clients

You will receive text message responses to your transactional messages - that means any message that isn't a marketing automated campaign or announcement. 

If you get a new text message from a client, it will appear in your Inbox and in the client card Conversation tab. If enabled, you will also get a notification on the vcita mobile phone app.

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Tip: Check the Require your attention folder of the Inbox to see new text messages and other items that need your follow-up. 
Note: You are not charged for SMS messages received from clients.

 

Lead Generation from SMS

A new client is created every time you receive a message from a phone number that isn't associated with any clients in your Clients list. This is a great way to generate leads - just invite prospective clients to text your dedicated SMS number with a query or if they would like to hear more.

Follow-up with new leads by messaging them back or target them with marketing campaigns. 

Note: A new client card is also created if an existing client texts you from a new number, or if they did not previously have a number associated with their client card. In this case, merge the two clients to retain all contact info and messages. 

Deactivate Two Way Texting

To deactivate two-way texting, return to your SMS settings:

  1. Navigate to Settings > Auto Client Messages and SMS.
  2. Switch to the SMS Settings tab.
  3. Select one of the other options: either enable the 'do not reply auto message' or 'no auto reply'.
  4. Save your changes.

After deactivating, you can no longer receive text messages from your clients.

Note: If you reactivate 2 way SMS at a later time, we cannot guarantee that you will receive the same phone number as before. Similarly, if you downgrade from Platinum, your dedicated SMS number may not be saved. 

FAQs

Q: Will my number have a local area code?

A: It depends on your location, but in most cases, your number will have a local area code.

Q: Am I charged for texts that I receive from clients?

A: No - only sending a text message will deduct from your balance.

Q: I don't see the two-way texting option in my account. What do I do?

A: Make sure you are on the Platinum package. If you are on platinum and still do not see an option to activate two-way texting, please verify that your country is eligible for auto-registration.

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